In this guide, we will explain how to search, find and download for free all the album covers of our mp3s present on the PC or on android and iphone phones.
The evolution in the way we listen to music has changed over the past few decades. Whether it was vinyl, cassette, or CD, we always had an album cover in our hands while listening to our favorite music.
Since the appearance of the Internet as an essential element in our life, we have started listening to music downloaded in Mp3 but without having linked an album cover to these songs.
To remedy this lack there are programs and sites that allow you to download any cover of any album that we want to combine with the corresponding music in Mp3.
How to find album covers
Album Art Downloader is a free and open-source program that allows us to find and download album art so that our MP3 music files are well organized.
The main virtue of this program is that it is able to search for covers on various specialized websites such as Amazon, CDCoverHideout, CDCoverIsland, Discogs, Album Art Exchange, Cover-Paradies, among others. This means that we can easily find the desired cover even for little known artists or albums, regardless of our musical taste.
Once the application has been downloaded and started, its main menu appears with an interface with a simple and intuitive design, which despite being completely in English, is very easy to use. In the central part, we find enough space to correctly display any research we perform.
At the top, we find the “Artist” and “Album” sections, which will be the two essential search fields to carry out our task, as they will allow us to tell the application which artist and album we want to search for the cover.
Also, with each new search, a new window will open to make sure nothing is accidentally lost. An optional function that can be configured as we will see later from its “Options” menu.
On the right side of the interface, we find a column where all the sources appear where the program will search for the desired cover. We can mark all or select only the ones you want. Although the program does not allow us to add our pages to the search, the options it offers us are more than enough.
Once the name of the album artist has been entered, click on the «Search» button, and in a few seconds, the program will display all the covers found among all the selected sources. However, the number of results may be large and it may take some time to find the correct cover page if no filters are applied or if all sources are chosen for the search.
At the top, we also have an options section that will allow us to configure some application parameters. For example, we can mark that the search results are opened in a new window, or that the program closes automatically after saving.
Another option is the ability to filter by image size and cover type. A very useful function if we want to search only the front cover, the back cover or even the internal brochures that accompany CDs. Furthermore, we can select the path on our PC where we want the downloads of the covers we make to be saved.
When it comes to downloading covers, the process is just as simple. We just have to choose the desired one and click on it. In a few seconds, it will be downloaded to the established path.
We can also right-click and a context menu will appear from which we can see a preview, choose the path for the download, copy to the clipboard or delete. We can also choose if we want the image to be saved as a front, back, or CD image, so that everything is well organized.
Sites to download high-quality music covers
You can use them to refine your MP3 collection or simply to collect the covers of your old favorite CDs or if you want to have the covers on an android or iPhone. Here are the best sites to download high-quality album covers.
Discogs
Discogs is one of the access resources for online music data. It is a large database that collects information on artists, albums, record companies, and much more. It’s no surprise, then, that Discogs also collects album cover images.
Start by searching for your chosen album or artist using the box above. After selecting an album, you will see the image in the upper left corner of the page. Select More Images to view other images related to that album, such as CD back cover, inserts, special editions, and more.
MusicBrainz
Discogs has a lot of information, but MusicBrainz may surpass it. It’s like an IMDb for music, letting you track music by tags and categories, find a band’s presence on the internet, and much more.
This amount of information can be scattered at first, but finding album art with MusicBrainz will be pretty easy. Search for an artist or album name using the top right bar and you’ll see lots of results. Select the album you are looking for and chances are different versions from different regions of the world will appear.
Amazon
The sites above should take care of your CD cover most of the time. But in case you are looking for something more accessible or can’t find what you want you to have other options.
Amazon sells tons of music and typically features album pictures as well. Simply search for the album you are looking for and you can easily access their cover image. You will need to right-click and choose Open Image in New Tab to get a copy of the image available for saving.
Google Images
Still can’t find the CD cover you are looking for? Try reaching out to the world’s largest image search platform. You can most likely find photos for just about anything, as Google Images searches all over the web.
If you find poor quality images you can set the Size option on Tools to Large to avoid small file versions.
Google Images can find photos from previously reported sites, so it’s up to you to decide which search interface you prefer to use.
